Hartford: Bringing The Pieces Together

Agenda 2014: EditorialThe Hartford Courant

Though it is not always apparent, there's a lot going on in Hartford. More people are living downtown and more downtown housing is on the way. A group of young entrepreneurs and artists is emerging in the city. There's a solid chance Coltsville will win National Historic Park designation in the coming year. The new bus and commuter rail projects are one and two years away, respectively. The University of Connecticut's Greater Hartford campus is moving downtown.

But many of these activities seem to be happening independent of each other. There does not appear to be the kind of coordinated leadership that would best leverage this activity into tangible progress. In 2014 we need all the units in the same parade.

Here's an example of what's been happening. For the past year, a planning team hired by the city has been preparing a study of a large swath of the land to the north and west of downtown, an area the planners call Downtown North. Much of this land once was part of downtown but was orphaned and denigrated when I-84 was run through the heart of the city in the 1960s. It's an important area to redevelop.

The plan, now in final drafting, has much to admire. It fills unsightly surface parking lots with dense urban buildings, reconnects downtown to the North End and makes the area more walkable and more pleasing to the eye.

But while the city was studying Downtown North, a separate planning process got under way. The Capital Region Development Authority began a three-year study of what to do with the XL Center, which has been open since 1979 and is showing its age.

City officials want the arena kept where it is, and the Downtown North plan doesn't carve out space for a new one.

But that gets ahead of the game. The threshold question is what kind of arena Hartford should have. If we want an arena that could host a National Hockey League team — an idea Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says he is open to — then the current site may be too small. A logical place for a new one would be the Downtown North area, close to downtown businesses, workers and residents.

It would thus make sense to plan these together. Another example: the new UConn campus will be nowhere near the new bus/rail service. With the exception of Riverfront Recapture, Hartford has not done well at long-term, coordinated planning. But that is how cities are revived.

Providence

This point was made in a 2009 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (http://bit.ly/g7XvdX), as part of an effort to revive the economy of Springfield. The study looked at 25 mid-sized cities from New England to the Midwest that were similar in 1960 — they were the principal cities in their metro areas, were manufacturing-oriented and were mostly in the 100,000 to 250,000 population range.

While all of the cities were hurt by the loss of manufacturing and suburbanization in the ensuing half-century, some, such as Providence, Grand Rapids and Fort Wayne, made strong comebacks, enhancing commerce and community vitality, reducing crime and improving living standards for their residents.

Some cities, such as Springfield, Hartford, Bridgeport and Waterbury, did not.

The reason that some cities were able to reverse their fortunes was leadership and collaboration over long periods of time. The leader wasn't always the mayor — in various successful cities it ranged from energetic mayors or business organizations to nonprofit foundations and developers — but someone stepped up, got the major players behind a plan and then executed it.

That needs to happen in Hartford. The future of the XL Center might be the place to start. Mr. Malloy probably is the person to bring the various interests — city hall, CRDA, the business community, UConn, etc. — to the table. It's worth a try.

This is No. 2 on The Courant's agenda list for Connecticut for 2014. Tomorrow: The state needs to rebuild, repair its infrastructure.